A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 09 December 2009 22:51:45

So one evening last week I was reclined on my bed doing something or other on my computer. Pooka was lying at the other end of the bed sleeping.

Suddenly there was a crash.

"That sounded like a dog falling off a bed!" called my father from the dining room. And he was correct.

Apart from looking kinda surprised, Pooka was fine and jumped back up (but settled herself on the wall side of the bed - she learns from her mistakes).

However she's been limping the last few days. Not much, and it hasn't affected her activity levels, but it is there. I examined her and could find nothing unusual and figured that it's probably a strain or a sprain or something from falling off the bed. But yesterday I decided to take her to the vet, mainly so that the people at the park wouldn't think I'm heartless and cruel and also because if I left it much longer the vet might yell at me.

We had a marvellous trip to the vet. The girl on the front desk is a trained dog groomer. She knows Pooka from the park and has done some minor maintenance on Pooka while at the park on a couple of occasions. She did a bit of a trim while we were waiting.

Then the tricky bit where I had to get Pooka to demonstrate her limp... Pooka is not terrified of the vet anymore, but won't venture much further into the building than the waiting room.. it is hard to show a limp on a stationary dog. The vet said we could go out to the car park. This worked better except Pooka was so excited she was running everywhere. Eventually some liver treats helped her to walk to heel.

The vet agreed with my diagnosis and prescribed anti-inflammatories plus rest.

A week of total rest.

Followed by a week of just walks on the lead, no rumbling with other dogs.

Now I understand why this is the recommendation. But to keep Pooka still and quiet for a week would require an induced coma. However I know that such excuses are dismissed as garbage by the vet, so I kept them in the pile of things that I think and don't say.

When we got home I cancelled her dog walker for this week and fed her a tablet wrapped in ham... then she spent all afternoon chasing birds in the back yard and dropping her ball down the stairs so she can run down to fetch it.